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Editorial: Get out and get involved

In cooperation with three other cities, Rosemount recently hired a volunteer coordinator whose job it is to find roles for volunteers, and then to match those roles to people willing to fill them.

It’s a more formal approach to a system that has been around for years. There have long been volunteers filling roles in Farmington’s Rambling River Center. Families and community organizations adopt parks, pick up trash along roadsides and serve on boards, commissions and task forces.

Big community celebrations like Farmington’s recently-completed Dew Days and Rosemount’s fast-approaching Leprechaun Days are run entirely by groups of dedicated volunteers.

The city of Rosemount even offers recognition each year at one of its council meetings for residents who have given their time to make the city better in some way.

This new position gives the process, at least in one area, a little more structure. It opens up opportunities that might otherwise have gone undiscovered, then finds residents who can fill them.

Bringing in volunteers can save the city and its partners money, and it can provide residents a new way to connect with the city they have made their home.

We hope the effort is successful, but we also know there will continue to be opportunities well beyond what will be generated by this new position. There are service organizations like Rotary or the Lions Club hard at work in both Farmington and Rosemount. There are arts organizations and youth sports organizations. There are people who go out and clean up their neighborhood just because they think it’s the right thing to do.

If this new position increases those opportunities, then so much the better.